Archbishop Aymond’s Boycott: “We Cannot Cooperate With Evil”

From the Archdiocese of New Orleans comes one of the most effective anti-abortion protests to date.

On January 27, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans published a letter in the Clarion-Herald, the Archdiocesan newspaper, which has been distributed in every Catholic church in the metropolitan area. In it, Archbishop Aymond announces that the Archdiocese of New Orleans will boycott any person or business who plays a role in helping to erect a new Planned Parenthood facility on Claiborne Avenue.

The planned $4.2 million, 7,000- to 8,000-square-foot facility would, according to Planned Parenthood, be the first in the state to offer abortion services. However, perhaps because of pro-life initiatives on the part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and other groups, no construction has begun on the center.

Archbishop Aymond reminded his flock that

“Abortion is a grave evil…. The Archdiocese is obliged to remind every person and organization involved in the acquisition, preparation and construction of this or any abortion facility that they are cooperating with the evil that will take place there.”

Louisiana Right to Life has also been involved in preventing the planned clinic, which held its groundbreaking in May 2013, from ever being built. Through their NolaNeedsPeace.com campaign, LRTL has placed signs around the city which say

“More Planned Parenthood = More Abortions.”

And a health panel of the Louisiana State House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a measure calling for an investigation of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to see whether it’s in compliance with all state and federal laws, after allegations that the organization has been using its Medicaid funds to refer patients for abortions in the state of Texas. Attorney Dorinda Bordlee, representing the Bioethics Defense Fund, told the court,

“There are legal issues concerning our current state law which says state contractors cannot recommend abortion or provide facilities for abortion. This resolution asks various state agencies to inquire whether that contract would be null because of their abortion providing activities.”

Ben Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, said, “Every day there’s not abortions happening on Claiborne Avenue is a good day for the city of New Orleans.” Clapper believes that the protests have caused contractors to shy away from the project. His goal is to prevent Planned Parenthood from performing abortions on Claiborne Avenue.

Following is the letter from Archbishop Gregory Aymond in its entirety. You can find the original letter, including footnotes, on the Clarion-Herald’s website.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

In March 2013, the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans participated in an awareness campaign regarding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Planned Parenthood is set to construct a 7,000- to 8,000-square-foot facility at 4636 South Claiborne Avenue near Napoleon Avenue in New Orleans. Although Planned Parenthood does not currently perform abortions in Louisiana, they have publicly stated that they will be performing abortions at this new facility and that it will be the largest of its kind in Louisiana. They intend to open in 2014.

In 2011, Planned Parenthood performed over 330,000 abortions across the U.S., representing over 1/3 of our nation’s abortions every year. Moreover, for every 145 abortions that Planned Parenthood performs, they facilitate only one adoption referral. Nine out of 10 pregnant women who enter the doors of a Planned Parenthood facility have an abortion.
A new construction permit was given final approval by the City of New Orleans on December 5, 2013. Documentation filed with the City Department of Safety and Permits provides substantial detail as to the design of the facility. According to records filed by Planned Parenthood’s Electrical Engineering Consultant, there will be “patient recovery areas…” Abortion industry experts have advised that this indicates Planned Parenthood could perform upwards of thirty (30) abortions per day. This is a staggering increase in the number of abortions in light of the 3,496 abortions1 (see footnotes) performed in 2012 in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

It has been the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church since the first century that abortion is a grave evil. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” states in paragraph 2270 that:

“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. 72 (1703, 357)

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. 73 Jer 1:5; cf. Job 10:8-12; Ps 22:10-11

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.” 74 Ps 139:15

We cannot be silent in view of the grave injustice presented by the abortions that will be performed at the proposed Planned Parenthood facility. The archdiocese is obliged to remind every person and organization involved in the acquisition, preparation and construction of this or any abortion facility that they are cooperating with the
evil that will take place there. For this reason, the archdiocese, including its churches, schools, apartments for the elderly and nursing homes, will strive in its privately funded work not to enter into business relationships with any person or organization that participates in actions that are essential to making this abortion facility a reality.

This policy applies to all businesses, regardless of religious affiliation or non-affiliation. Our fidelity to Church teaching and our conscience necessitates this stance.

There is no justification, including economic hardship that will make a direct or indirect relationship with Planned Parenthood, or any abortion provider, acceptable. Additionally, affiliation or support of Planned Parenthood by Catholics is a matter of serious scandal.2

We will continue to pray for those that are blind to the destruction caused by abortion and invite those involved with Planned Parenthood to prayer and dialogue. There are many issues, from violence in the streets to poverty, which hurt this community. A regional abortion center will not solve our problems; it will only create more. This is not the future the New Orleans metropolitan area needs.

We hope that the community invested in the City of New Orleans and in her future will join us in standing for life, not more abortion.

All citizens of the New Orleans area must stand together for a peaceful community, not one with more abortion and more Planned Parenthood.

If you have questions, need resources or would like to participate further, please contact me or Peg Kenny, Respect Life Office at (504) 286-1119 or via email at respectlife@arch-no.org.

Wishing You God’s Blessings, I am,

Sincerely in Christ,
Most Rev. Gregory M. Aymond
Archbishop of New Orleans

Wow….we need more like him…not just bishops, not just priests, but lay men and women.

nurse

There for let us boycott any diocese that has protected a pedophile as well. That is a most grevious evil indeed.

Anthony Hollars

Strawman argument. You will not see any Catholic defending a pedophile priest or the leadership who enabled. It was our generation and our children who were the victims of those crimes. Why the hell do you think we would ever make excuses for something like that?!

aufinch

Homosexual priests have been the problem. Data (national wide) show that 81 percent of the victims have been male, and more than 95 percent have been postpubescent. When males have sex with postpubescent males, it is called homosexuality, not pedophilia. Also, the scandal took place mostly between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s. In the last ten years, the average number of credible accusations made against 40,000 priests is in the single digits. We must continue to pray for all religious and leaders

MaryS

It IS pedophilia, aufinch! Those boys were not willing participants, you ignorant sorry excuse for a human being. It is evil, and the Catholic church and therefore all Catholics allowed it and defended it, ruining lives!

mark

MaryS
with such skewed thinking as you demonstrate, you are guilty of slavery, the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, all illegal drug use and any evil ever perpetrated by any American. I, a Catholic, was not aware of these crimes until the 1990’s and will never defend such perversions
and yet you would accuse all Catholics. Therefore, I ACCUSE YOU of every injustice from the beginning of time because you are a human being and by your own logic, YOU ARE CULPABLE.
Of course, I know this is not so, but if you take license to paint every Catholic with such a broad brush why shouldn’t I?

MP

“There for”? Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

Eileen & John

” All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God except for the savings grace of of Lord,Jesus.”
We ask for your love and mercy Lord, help us be good examples to each other and ‘encourage what is good.’
We can all look at the times we all could have, should have stepped up to the plate to address wrong. Let us encourage each other …i am trying to remove the plank in my eye. 🙂

Chad

Unless you are a victim(S) I really don’t believe you know to much about the situation. So why spread foul words.

Reminder not only the Catholic did this ungodly act….. There is other religions out there.

MaryS

The percentage among priests is much greater than among other categories of persons who are supposed to help people. Who exist to mentor and guide people, including children. The title of this article professes no tolerance to evil, and yet…

kathyschiffer

Mary, this is a blatantly libelous statement, and I urge you never to repeat it again.

One study reported that “Family friends and acquaintances compose the largest group of perpetrators (28 percent), followed by such relatives as uncles and cousins (18 percent), stepfathers (12 percent), male siblings (10 percent), biological fathers (10 percent), boyfriends of the child’s mother (9 percent), grandfathers and stepgrandfathers (7 percent), and strangers (4 percent).” Horn was struck by the fact that 10 percent were biological fathers and only 4 percent were strangers. “Which means,” he said, “86 percent of the perpetrators were known to the family, but were someone other than the child’s father.”

About 85 percent of the offenders [of child sexual abuse] are family members, babysitters, neighbors, family friends or relatives. About one in six child molesters are other children.

According to a survey by the New York Times, 1.8 percent of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 have been accused of child sexual abuse. Thomas Kane, author of Priests are People Too, estimates that between 1 and 1.5 percent of priests have had charges made against them.

In a 1984 survey, 38.6 percent of ministers reported sexual contact with a church member, and 76 percent knew of another minister who had had sexual intercourse with a parishioner.[xiii] In the same year, a Fuller Seminary survey of 1,200 ministers found that 20 percent of theologically “conservative” pastors admitted to some sexual contact outside of marriage with a church member. The figure jumped to over 40 percent for “moderates”; 50 percent of “liberal” pastors confessed to similar behavior.

I can cite more statistics, if you need them. Please, I urge you, do not slander or libel good Catholic priests.

janiceclaire

Maybe we should do this but this wasn’t the place to bring up that subject. You should live in California and see all the teachers, etc. being arrested for pedophilia.
‘

julieannepol

So I think the names of all corporate donators should be public information so people know if they want to support the cause or not but at least you can boycott them

colleen10001

So Great….I try to promote at clergy, bishops that Act to protect Life.

Colorado Tim

Great Work Archbishop, way to lead!

Donna

God bless you, Your Eminence! Let us also publish the names of any persons or companies associated with this house of horrors (banks, construction companies, etc.)

Observant soul

Archbishop your demand will be followed by some of your flock. I wonder if YOU really are going to boycott any entity involved. Will the Catholic Church no longer accept the subsidized rent checks that you get from the government for each renter in your apartments? You must realize that the govt has made abortion legal therefore they are a part of this. So step up to the plate And quit accepting the checks. Do as YOU say.

Romulus

Archbishop Aymond talks the talk, but as one of his flock I can’t forget that at his Installation Mass not many years ago, a prominent part was given to James Carville who has at least twice argued — vigorously, and in a public forum — that a good Catholic can be pro-choice. I welcome the Archbishop’s words, and hope his heart is with them this time.

kathyschiffer

I’m pretty sure that he would not have been involved in planning his own installation Mass–that would have fallen to archdiocesan staff (music director, etc.) who were there before he came. Once he took office, it would be to him to communicate his specific wishes re. liturgies, and to if necessary replace staff with more orthodox leaders.

prliz

Way to go!

clingermanocds

+St. Agatha
Praised be Jesus Christ! How sad it is that we are sometimes shocked when a bishop is so clear, precise, and unequivocal about good vs. evil. May God reward His Excellency for seeing to the pastoral care of his flock! And please, let us all pray for all our bishops that they may always do likewise.

name

shouldn’t the democrat party be boycotted?

Lee Poteet

Yes, of course, but don’t expect the bishop to say that.[

OrdainedPraise

Good – there are other things that should be labeled evil by our Church leaders…but they are afraid to say it. This lets the evildoers give us the label when we are just choosing to live by God’s standards. I’m glad he is fighting the evil of abortion here!

Hugh Beaumont

Excommunicate Catholic politicians who stand for anti-Catholic causes. No more, “personally I’m against, but who am I to inflict…blah blah blah”. Suppose one were to say 150 years ago, “Personally I’m against slavery, but who am I to inflict my morality on others?” You’d call him a coward. It’s no different. Excommunicate all Catholic politicians that support abortion.

Karl Leinfelder

And how about the pro-abortion stands promulgated by Catholic members of our government? Pelosi, for example.

vzender

Thank you so much for standing up to the evil of the abortion industry. Now let’s all, Bishops, priest and lay people, do the same everywhere. Thank you and God bless you.

rod masom

Abp. Aymond is to be commended upon reminding those in New Orleans that may have forgotten, that legalized abortion is an ABOMINATION before the Lord. Yes, it’s a “grave evil”, but more than that each and every act of directly procured abortion is, first and foremost, an ABOMINATION. It’s not hard to figure out why. All Catholic high schoolers should know why. For every human being conceived in the womb is the CROWN JEWEL of God’s creation. It is sacrosanct and should not be disturbed. Plus, each and every human conceived is, in the words of Blessed JP II, UNREPEATABLE. There will never ever be another person like it. The cure for cancer or diabetes or Alzheimer’s may lie dormant within the brain of that one UNREPEATABLE human being. America, therefore, has much to answer for in the sixty-odd million abortions that have occurred in the last 41 years since the passage of that atrocity known as Roe V. Wade.

Karl Leinfelder

Mark, thank you so very much for the contributive remark regarding abortions. It truly is the big sin on the conscious of the United States. I am sure that that Jesus will deal mightily with those on the day of judgment that he finds guilty of this horrendous crime. Truly abortion is a grave evil by Planned Parenthood (the nation’s largest abortion provider). Planned Parenthood performed over 300,00 abortions across the United States. For every adoption referral 145 abortions were carried out.